


Lights will appear

by scalira



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Halloween, Human AU, M/M, Trans Jace, non-binary Meliorn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 13:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8402767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scalira/pseuds/scalira
Summary: Meliorn is objectively speaking, though only having looked at them for three seconds, the most beautiful person Jace has ever seen.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous requested: Jeliorn + Halloween party
> 
> (also shout out to Deni on Tumblr (rafaelsantiagos) for helping me with the title) (it's a lyric from a song from Tangled)

Jace Wayland isn’t known for many things. He isn’t the smartest in the family, or the tallest, or the first one to graduate law school. He’s mostly just… average. He’s the kid that dropped out of college, the boy born in the wrong body, the burden that put his parents through a lot of expensive bills so he could take hormones and undergo several surgeries. He isn’t outstanding in a lot of things.

But there’s one thing, though. One thing he’s been the very best at since the Lightwoods adopted him.

Halloween.

Jace used to do research for _weeks_ trying to come up with the perfect, most scary costume. He often ran around the neighborhood terrorizing everyone with his horrific masks and greatly executed fake wounds. He honesty thrived on October 31 st.

But everyone else’s costumes got less scary and just more weird every year. Boys stopped dressing up as pirates and thieves and started dressing up as Pepe the frog. Girls no longer dressed up as vampires and replaced fangs with high heels. So Jace was forced to tone down his costumes too, until he didn’t even feel like dressing up at all anymore.

When he turned fifteen, Isabelle came up with a new thing; choosing each other’s Halloween costume. They would pick each other’s names out of an old hat at the start of October and come up with something they had to wear to Magnus’ annual Halloween party. Jace got Alec to wear a full tree costume and Izzy made him wear the left shark costume last year.

She picks his name out of the hat _again_ this year, and she makes a whole deal out of letting him know he’ll be dressing up as Flynn Rider from Tangled. She writes him a letter with curly letters, makes him watch the movie and even buys him a stuffed horse to carry around.

“It makes sense!” She states the night of the Halloween party. “Flynn has two names, just like you. Flynn Rider is his cool name, the name all his enemies know. Eugene is the name only Rapunzel knows, because it’s his real name and that makes him vulnerable.”

“Your _official_ name is Jace Wayland,” Alec continues, “but we see you as Jace Lightwood. Also, Eugene grew up an orphan, you were in foster care… you have a lot in common!”

“Except I don’t look like him at all,” Jace points out. Isabelle waves him off.

“You’re like a blond version of him. I’ll get you the right costume so everyone will be able to tell who you’re supposed to be.”

Jace looks between his brother and sister and sighs.

“I hope you know I hate you both,” he mutters.

Izzy and Alec just fist bump.

*

Jace has to admit Izzy came through with his costume. It’s almost an exact replica of the original, including the satchel Flynn stole in the movie and the calf-high boots he wears. In the end, it isn’t even the worst out of the three costumes. Alec made Izzy wear a banana costume Jace made Alec wear the Scully onesie from Monsters Inc.

Magnus’ party is held in an abandoned warehouse, dressed up with cobwebs, bats, expensive looking fake ghosts and pumpkins.

“He’s really outdone himself this year,” Izzy says, pointing at a huge cauldron filled with what appears to be blood but must be red wine.

“He has,” Alec agrees, a goofy smile on his face. He’s already scanning the crowd for his boyfriend, and his eyes light up when he notices Magnus in the sea of people.

Magnus pushes his way to them, and when Jace sees him, his jaw almost drops to the floor.

“You did _not_ ,” Isabelle shrieks, voicing Jace’ thoughts.

Magnus holds his arms open wide and does a little twirl, showing off the ridiculous and hideously green Mike Wazowski costume he’s wearing.

“I did,” Magnus beams, stepping closer to Alec to give him a kiss on the cheek. “If Alexander is dressing up as Scully, then I certainly must dress up as the other half of that iconic duo.” 

Jace shakes his head in disbelief but doesn’t comment. Strangely enough, this isn’t the weirdest costume he’s seen Magnus in. Last year, for example, he came completely naked. His body might’ve been body painted and it might’ve looked really cool from afar, but up close Jace had seen things he wishes he hadn’t.

“I’m gonna find Clary,” Izzy says, quickly giving Jace a kiss on the cheek before bumping her way through the crowd, occasionally accidentally hitting someone with her huge, yellow costume.

Jace hangs out with Alec and Magnus for a while, but eventually gets tired of their constant flirting and casual touching. So he makes a detour to the alcohol cauldron and scoops out a glass of wine before slowly making his way across the warehouse, politely greeting familiar faces and making small talk with people he knows.

“Jace!” Someone exclaims from behind him. Jace turns around and is barely fast enough to catch Clary as she flings herself into his arms.

“Jesus, you’re acting like we haven’t seen each other in five years,” he laughs as he puts his friend down. Clary looks adorable in her Frankenstein’s bride costume, something only she can do; looking cute in Halloween attire.

“Well, it’s pretty close!” Clary sighs. “College is only two hours away, but I’m so busy with all my courses I barely have the time to drop by anymore.”

“It’s true,” another voice agrees. Simon appears from behind Clary and hugs Jace before continuing. “I barely recognized her when she came to visit. She must’ve grown almost a full inch while she was gone!”

Clary nudges Simon in the ribs with her pointy elbow, and Simon grimaces at her before focusing his attention back on Jace. “Hey, you remember my boyfriend Raphael, right?”

“I do,” Jace nods. He’d only met Raphael once, on Simon’s birthday, but that’s mostly because Raphael likes to keep to his own group of friends. Simon has complained about it to Jace multiple times and they’ve also come up with numerous sly plans to make Raphael like Simon’s friends, but they have yet to succeed in any of them.

Raphael seems to be appearing out of thin air next to Simon and briefly greets Jace with a polite ‘hello’.

“Nice costumes,” Jace grins, gesturing to the two of them. Raphael is wearing a Spiderman outfit while Simon is wearing his favorite, worn-out Deadpool costume.

“He forced me to do it,” Raphael sighs exasperated, but he reaches out to lace his fingers with Simon’s.

“I gently persuaded you,” Simon corrects.

Raphael glares at him and then looks at Jace. “He threatened to break up with me if I didn’t agree to matching costumes.”

“Simothy!” Jace gasps, scandalized. “How _dare_ you?”

Simon flips him off and tucks Raphael closer to his side. Then he eyes Jace up and down, as if he’d forgotten he’s wearing a costume too until now, and his eyes turn huge. “Dude!”  He exclaims. “Are you supposed to be Flynn Rider from Tangled?”

“Yeah,” Jace breathes. “Izzy chose it for me.”

“That’s so funny! Raphael’s friend, Meliorn, they’re here as Rapunzel! Oh my god, you should totally meet them. And take a picture with them. And possibly date them and go on double dates with us and get married on the same day as us.”

“Okay,” Raphael chuckles, “calm down there. Maybe we should introduce them first.”

Simon nods eagerly, grabbing Jace’ hand to pull him along.

They find Meliorn in line to have their picture taken, and Jace feels as if his breath is knocked out of him.

Meliorn is objectively speaking, though only having looked at them for three seconds, the most beautiful person Jace has ever seen. They’re wearing a long, flowy purple dress, not an exact replica of the original but _better_ , and their long, dark hair has flowers braided into it. Jace notices they’re barefoot to stay as authentic as possible. They’re even carelessly swinging around a frying pan waiting for their turn.

“Meliorn!” Raphael calls out when they’re within earshot.

Meliorn looks up and immediately spots Jace, a warm smile spreading across their face.

“Oh, wow,” they say, “you’re gone for five minutes and you find me my prince? I must say I’m impressed, Raphael.”

Raphael rolls his eyes at them. “This is Jace,” he explains, “a friend of Simon’s and Flynn Rider for the evening.”

“Nice to meet you, Jace,” Meliorn says with a slight tilt of the head.

“Uh, nice to meet you too,” Jace stutters, hoping his cheeks aren’t as red as he feels they are.

Meliorn jerks their head at the line they’re in.

“Do you want to take a picture with me? You know, to please the crowd.” They nod at Simon, who’s following their conversation as if this is the best thing that has ever happened to him.

“Ye- yeah. Okay,” Jace nods. He gets in line with Meliorn and ignores Simon’s little ‘ _whoop!_ ’ as Raphael pushes him away from them.

“I – uh. I like your hair,” he says once Raphael and Simon have disappeared again.

“Most of it isn’t real,” Meliorn whispers, as if they’re sharing a big secret. “My real hair is only shoulder length.”

“Damn it, now you ruined the illusion!” Jace jokes. Meliorn snickers and continues to tell him how hard it was to braid all those flowers in. Normally Jace wouldn’t care about any of that, but Meliorn’s voice is too pleasant to listen to and their hand gestures are too animated to watch.

They slip into an easy conversation after that, with Jace complaining about his sister’s idea to pick each other’s costumes and how he’s gonna get her back next year. Meliorn remarks that they really like Jace’ costume, to which Jace starts blushing almost aggressively. He has to mentally shake himself when Meliorn is momentarily occupied by something else to urge himself to pull it together. He’s normally never this dumbstruck with _anyone_ , certainly not during the first meeting.

“So,” Meliorn says, peeking over heads to see when it’s their turn to have their pictures taken, “how do you know Simon?”

“I used to date his best friend,” Jace shrugs. “We used to dislike each other because we were both crushing on Clary, but then Clary came out as gay so we really had no reason to stay rivals. After that, we just started hanging out together without her.”

“Did you two ever – ” Meliorn makes a vague hand gesture, “ – you know, have a thing?”

“Who, me and Simon?” Jace laughs. “No, he’s not my type.”

“Because he’s a boy?” Meliorn wonders.

“N-no. I like boys. And girls. And non-binary people! I’m – uh. I’m pansexual, but Simon just _really_ isn’t my type. Besides, it didn’t take him long to become absolutely smitten for Raphael.”

“Pansexual, huh?” Meliorn asks. “Me too.” They bite their lip in order not to grin too widely, and Jace can’t help but smile at the sight of that.

“What about you and Raphael?” He asks, not ready to let the conversation die down yet. “You two ever a thing?”

Meliorn snorts. “No, absolutely not. I met him through Magnus. You know Magnus, right?”

“Yeah, he’s my brother’s boyfriend.”

“Oh, wait! You’re _Alec’s_ Jace?”

“Well, frankly, I’m nobody’s Jace but my own,” Jace grins.

Meliorn grins too. “It’s just that I’ve heard _a lot_ about you.”

“Only good things, I hope?”

Meliorn lets their gaze drift over Jace’ form, eyes dark and shiny.

“Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

They continue to tell him about all the things Magnus told them about Jace, varying from his blooming coffee business to how funny he gets when he’s drunk. Jace is surprised to hear how positive Magnus is about him to his friends, since they’re not really that kind of bros. They’re more the ‘I’ll hang out with you but if you get in trouble you’re on your own’ kind of bros.

“I think he was trying to set us up,” Meliorn finishes with a shrug.

Ah. That explains why Magnus would be so kind about Jace behind his back.

“Why would he do that?” Jace asks.

“Well, we did show up in matching costumes without knowing each other. Maybe it was inevitable that we met, and he was just trying to give fate a hand.”

“Or maybe Magnus told Izzy what you were going as so she could choose my costume based on that knowledge,” Jace suggests.

Meliorn looks at him, tilting their head slightly. “I don’t mind,” they state. “Do you?”

“No,” Jace says, and he truly, really means it. “No, I don’t mind at all.”

*

They end up taking a lot of pictures together, posing like Rapunzel and Flynn on the Tangled movie posters, making funny faces and pretending as if Meliorn is strangling Jace with their hair. They even ask if they can kiss Jace on the cheek for a picture, and it takes all of Jace’ willpower to not just suggest to reenact the movie kiss.

They hang out together after that, getting beverages and snacks and dancing together. Izzy comes to introduce herself to Meliorn somewhere in the middle of the night, and it only takes Jace one look at her triumphant smile to know she set this whole thing up.

Another thing about Jace is that he’s really perceptive. That’s how he notices Simon approaching the DJ of the evening, slipping him some money to request a song. Simon winks at Jace when a slow song starts playing.

“That’s strange,” Meliorn murmurs, “who plays slow songs at a Halloween party?”

Jace offers Meliorn his hand for them to take.

“Told you our friends are trying to set us up,” Jace says when Meliorn takes his hand and puts their other hand on Jace’ shoulder. Jace wraps his arm around Meliorn’s waist and jerks his head to the corner of the room, where Magnus, Raphael, Simon and Izzy are all fist bumping each other.

Meliorn shakes their head with a soft laugh. “Well,” they say, stepping closer to Jace and looking up into his eyes, “better give them what they want, then.”

They dance to the music for a while, gently swaying together. Jace has his eyes on his friends over the top of Meliorn’s head, but he must admit they’re a nice person to dance with.

The slow song eventually comes to an end, and the two of them get back to their friends to end the night together. Magnus pretends like his nails are suddenly extremely interesting and Simon and Raphael engage in a random conversation about cats, but Izzy greets them with a smile and a wink.

Jace spends the rest of the night with his friends and Meliorn, who quickly gets along with everyone. Clary asks them if they can teach her how to braid her hair like that, and Izzy wants to meet up with them so they can teach her to do her make-up like theirs. Jace feels oddly jealous and happy Meliorn likes his friends at the same time, which is just _weird_. Even for him.

By the end of the night, when Simon is too drunk to stand and the sun is rising at the horizon, Meliorn pulls Jace away from the others.

“I’d like to see you again sometime,” they say, taking Jace’ hand to write their number on the back of it. “Call me?”

Jace squeezes Meliorn’s hand and bends down to give them a kiss on the cheek.

“I will,” he promises.

*

A bouquet of flowers is delivered to Jace’ door three days later, and he calls Simon as soon as the delivery boy is gone. Simon doesn’t pick up the first few times, but Jace keeps trying until he finally does.

“Jace,” Simon greets, sounding slightly out of breath, “this isn’t really the time to – ”

“They sent me flowers,” Jace interrupts. “Or at least I think they did. There’s no card or anything.”

Simon sighs and says something to the person with him, too quietly for Jace to understand.

“Who sent you flowers?” He eventually asks.

“Meliorn! I think. I don’t know. Is that something they would do? They seem to be a flower person, but I’m not sure.”

“Well, have you called them yet?”

“No.”

“Why not? You like them, right?”

Jace pinches the bridge of his nose as he starts walking circles around the table the flowers are placed on. “I do,” he admits. “But I didn’t want to seem desperate by calling them too soon.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Simon mutters. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Anyway, what kind of flowers did they send you?”

“I don’t know, Simon. I’m not a flower expert.” Jace inspects the bouquet again. “I think they’re orchids.”

“Well – ” Simon gasps softly and clears his throat “ – my flower expertise isn’t endless, but I do know orchids represent – ah – represent delicate beauty. Which means Meliorn thinks – _fuck –_  you’re beautiful.”

“Beautiful?”

“Yes, Jonathan.” Simon groans lowly. “Beautiful. You’re a very beautiful man, okay? So – h – hey, Raphael, what are you – ” Simon is abruptly cut off and Jace can hear some loud whispering before Raphael grumbles into the phone.

“I can’t believe my boyfriend just called you beautiful while I was literally sucking his dick,” he growls.

“Technically, you were _teasing_ my dick,” Simon says, loud enough for Jace to hear.

“Yeah, well. I don’t think there’ll be anything more than teasing thanks to Jonathan here.”

Jace has to bite back a laugh.

“I’m sorry?” He offers.

“You should be. Look, dude. Meliorn has a thing for flowers, okay. They’re always sending everyone flowers and then we have to look up the meaning behind them. So just look up the flowers they sent you, find out the meaning behind them and then ask them out. Okay?”

“Okay,” Jace nods.

“Glad we understand each other. Now, leave us alone.”

“I really am sorry,” Jace tries again, but Raphael has already hung up.

*

After doing some research, Jace finds out that the flowers Meliorn sent him were orchids and yellow chrysanths. Simon was right about the orchids standing for delicate beauty, and he finds out the yellow chrysanths stand for ‘secret admirer’. It makes Jace feel all warm and light inside – knowing that someone took time out of their life to do this for him.

It doesn’t take him long to figure out Meliorn must work in a flower shop nearby. He asks Magnus for the correct address, who texts it back immediately. It’s the first time he’s ever replied to one of Jace’ texts that fast.

Jace walks into the flower shop Meliorn works in the next day. Meliorn spots him as soon as he enters the shop and smiles beautifully at him.

“Hi there, stranger,” they greet.

“Hi,” Jace replies. “I – uh. I would like to buy a flower.”

“Only one?” Meliorn asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yes. Can I have one orange lily, please?”

“Well, okay,” Meliorn draws out as they walk past Jace to pick out an orange lily. They hand it to him, but before they can even tell him how much it’ll be, Jace shoves his hand forwards and presents the flower to Meliorn.

“Uh…” Meliorn says.

“It’s for you,” Jace clarifies.

“Really?” Meliorn beams. They take the flower from Jace and look at him through their eyelashes. “Okay, this either means you desire me or you hate me.”

“Definitely the first one,” Jace blurts. “I mean, I don’t desire you _sexually_ but – uh, not that you’re not attractive enough to be desired sexually! It’s just – I’m demisexual and I don’t know you well enough yet to be sexually attracted to you and… why am I telling you this?”

Meliorn laughs and leans over the counter, innocently looking up at Jace. “Do I make you nervous?” They wonder.

Jace scratches the back of his neck and exhales. “A bit. I’m normally never this tongue twisted around anyone. What I mean is that I _desire_ to go on a date with you. So – uh. Will you? Go on a date with me?”

“Sure,” Meliorn smiles. “Just tell me when.”

*

Jace takes Meliorn to the festival of lights on their first date. They hold hands as they watch the shows and Jace watches how Meliorn’s eyes reflect the lights, beautiful and dark and mesmerizing.

They have their first kiss on their way back home, when Meliorn is telling him what an amazing time they’d had and how they’d love to do something like this again soon. Jace is suddenly overwhelmed by this _feeling_ in the pit of his stomach, all warm and tingly and soft, and he feels like the only way to express this feeling is to pull Meliorn to a stop, cup their cheeks and kiss them.

Meliorn’s lips are soft and willing against Jace’, opening for him and allowing Jace to deepen the kiss. Meliorn has to stand on the tips of their toes to reach Jace’ mouth, and they cling onto Jace’ shoulders like their life depends on it.

Meliorn is all smiles and rosy cheeks when they pull back, and Jace is sure he looks just as flustered and happy as they do.

“Your friends did a really good job setting us up,” Meliorn murmurs, pressing their forehead against Jace’.

Jace chuckles against their lips. “Don’t tell them that,” he breathes, “We don’t want them to be all smug and cocky about us, do we?”

Meliorn laughs, soft and breathless. “No,” they agree. “No, we don’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay Listen To Me With Your Listening Ears: Jace dressing up as Flynn Rider actually makes SO much sense and I'm SO proud of myself for coming up with it, and let me explain why:
> 
> Both have two names: Jace Wayland - son of his father - and Jace Lightwood - adopted brother of Izzy and Alec. Flynn Rider - famous thief - and Eugene Fitzherbert - poor orphan.
> 
> Both grew up without their real parents. In this AU, Jace spent his childhood in foster care before getting adopted. In Tangled, Eugene spends his childhood in an orphanage. 
> 
> Both use their skills, good looks and charms to get out of trouble, and Rapunzel is the only one who doesn't fall for Flynn's Smoldering Look in Tangled, just like Meliorn is the only one who doesn't constantly put Jace on an unhealthy pedestal.
> 
> In conclusion: Jace Wayland as Flynn Rider, thank you for your attention.


End file.
